A YOUNG mum has described her terror as her daughter was delivered by emergency caesarean section almost three months premature and weighing less than a bag of sugar.

Now, 19-year-old Amie Turner is backing a new Great Western Hospital policy to allow new mothers to cuddle their premature babies immediately after giving birth. Previously, the critically-ill youngsters have been rushed to the special care baby unit and placed in an incubator.

Doctors say the initial skin-to-skin contact is important for both the baby and the mother, reducing the stress and helping to bond the pair.

Amie, of Bishopstone, told the Swindon Advertiser she was grateful to doctors and midwives for the chance to cuddle her daughter Lillie-Rose.

The teenager had been rushed to GWH with pre-eclampsia, a dangerous condition that can develop during pregnancy and results in high blood pressure and potentially organ damage. The most effective treatment is often for midwives to deliver the baby.

“You don’t know what’s happening,” said Amie. “You don’t know what’s going to happen in that operating theatre. I remember looking at everyone like it was the last time I was going to see them, because I didn’t know what to expect.

“I was overwhelmed and upset. When Lillie-Rose was born and I saw she was stable, I got a bit more positive.”

Lillie-Rose weighed just 695g, resting on mum Amie’s chest for the first cuddle. “It felt very special to hold her,” she said. “You don’t really think you’re pregnant until they’re born. Holding Lillie-Rose made it feel real.

“That first touch makes you feel like a mum.”

Her daughter was transferred to the specialist neonatal unit at St Michael’s Hospital, Bristol. Now back at GWH’s special care baby unit, Lillie-Rose is expected to be able to come home by early January – when she had been due.

Amie described her first-born as sassy: “She knows what she wants and she gets it. She’s very strong for her size, bubbly and just gets on with things.”

She backed GWH’s push to get new mothers cuddling their premature babies. Aime worried: “I think if you didn’t have it, it’d be different. You wouldn’t feel like a mum.”

Dr Sarah Bates, consultant paediatrician, said: “Often, mothers who have delivered a baby prematurely miss out on a lot of aspects of their pregnancy that other mothers may take for granted.

“We want to support these families to have those special experiences by allowing parents a first cuddle with their baby before they are taken to special care.

“Having a premature baby can often be a very distressing time and this new initiative will go some way to minimising that stress as well as benefitting premature babies enormously from contact with their mother. We want this to start as early as possible.”

ADVER CHRISTMAS APPEAL

THE Adver is calling on its readers to help GWH in its bid to buy five new baby incubators as its Christmas campaign.

The hospital must raise £1,000 a day this week if it is to hit a £175,000 target by Christmas.

Great Western Hospital is £28,000 away from reaching its appeal target and this week has a chance to close that gap.

Hospital charity Brighter Futures needs to raise £7,500 by midday next Tuesday if it is to win match funding from grant-givers the Dr Thomas Cranston Wilson Charitable Trust and the Reed Foundation.

Now, the Adver is asking readers to dig deep and lend their weight to the campaign. If everyone in the town gave just 15p, the hospital could reach its target by Christmas Day.

The five new state-of-the-art incubators will be used on the special care baby unit at GWH. SCBU currently has 10 incubators in which to care for the 450 patients that pass through the unit every year.

Catherine Newman, head of Brighter Futures, urged Swindon to get behind a final push to get the appeal to its £175,000 target by Christmas.

“We just need that little final push,” she said. “This appeal is about giving our tiniest patients a chance. Our littlest patients don’t have a voice. They can’t speak for themselves, we’re speaking for them.

Adver editor Pete Gavan said: “This Christmas we should all throw our weight behind GWH’s bid to buy five new cribs for the town’s most vulnerable children. Please help in away way you can with a donation.”

How can I help?

To donate to the SCBU incubator appeal, call Brighter Futures on 01793 605631 or visit: www.brighterfuturesgwh.nhs.uk/biggive.

Are you fundraising for the appeal or have you been supported by the midwives at SCBU? Get in touch. Call the newsdesk on 01793 501806 or email newsdesk@swindonadvertiser.co.uk.